Exploring employee engagement within the context of the UAE waste management sector

This thesis examines employee engagement within the context of the UAE Waste Management Sector, specifically a waste disposal company situated in Abu Dhabi Emirate. An overarching research question is posed by the thesis, and it is as follows: 1. What are the key factors that impact upon engagement of employees in the public sector in the UAE, specifically waste management organizations? The literature review explores the themes of employee engagement, employment relationships, barriers to engagement, the importance of engagement, and issues surrounding engagement in the UAE. Through the review of literature, it is identified that while several extant studies have been done on the concept of engagement, as it is not new, studies of engagement have not considered exploring the influence of Emiratization and its impact on engagement. It is also identified that within the waste management sector, previous studies have only considered engagement in relation to sickness/absence from work, and this was done quantitatively using surveys (Gallup Research, 2017). This thesis closed these gaps in the literature by using qualitative approaches involving 30 interviews with employees from the UAE waste disposal segment, in investigating factors that influence engagement and the impacts of engagement on organizational outcomes. The thesis employed NVivo software in conducting thematic analysis of the findings included in the transcription, the grouping of participant responses, cataloging themes, identifying connections between themes, and coding the research findings. Analysis of the findings reveals important factors which impact engagement in the UAE’s waste disposal sector. These factors include access to relevant training, employee voice in terms of power distance dimension of culture, nature of rewards, positive factors alluded to the physical work environment, Emiratization Policy, and flexibility. The factors are also discussed in detail. This thesis identifies several key themes. It identifies that Emiratization policies influence engagement by Impacting knowledge sharing between Emirati and non-Emirati employees through influence on trust environment. The thesis identifies that this impacts engagement by reducing creativity and innovativeness. The findings from the thesis confirm prior studies which investigated the impact of cultural value orientations on the engagement of workers conducted by Zhong et al (2016), which followed a quantitative approach. In this thesis however using qualitative approaches it is identified that power-distance as a measure of national culture, influences the engagement of employees. Furthermore, the work environment, including physical and non-physical (relationship), is identified to be an important factor in engagement. Lastly, the thesis identifies that poor employee engagement impacts productivity outcomes of workers in UAE’s waste disposal sector and could impact the long-term sustainability of operations